ASCI upholds complaints against 31 misleading ads in Dec '17

Advertising sector watchdog ASCI has upheld complaints against 31 misleading advertisements for December 2017, including those of Blue Star, Dishnet Wireless, Magicbricks and Apollo Paints. The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has received 81 complaints for the month. During the period, ASCI picked 20 ads on suo moto surveillance in which 18 ads were upheld. It upheld 7 in the education category, 13 in healthcare category, 3 in food and beverages and 8, among others. The ad regulator had found claims of the outdoor pollution by Blue Star for its range of air purifier in ad was "misleading by exaggeration." Air in your house is 10 times more polluted than air outside did not provide any technical report in support of its quantitative claim of indoor air being 10x polluted.

This claim was not substantiated and is misleading by exaggeration," said ASCI. It also upheld claims against Dishnet Wireless, which provides cellular phone service under the brand name of Aircel, where it had claimed to be the largest network in Assam with best quality of data and voice service. ASCI said that the claims " was not substantiated with verifiable comparative data of the advertisers network and other network operators or through any third party validation. The claim is also misleading by exaggeration." Magicbricks Realty Services claims such as "get a Mercedes on every booking", get flat Rs 35 lakh discount and many more such deals were not substantiated with evidence of the offer being officially offered and details regarding genuine customers. " These claims are misleading by gross exaggeration," it said. The regulator also upheld against two claims against Apollo Paints for the ad of 'Apollo Paints Aqua' and 'Apollo Paints Eco Plus'. "The advertisements claim 'No more Asthma, No allergies', was not substantiated and is misleading by exaggeration," it said.

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